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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Equinox, eggs and other questions
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2002 Mar 16, 19:42 -0800
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2002 Mar 16, 19:42 -0800
At 08:31 PM 3/16/02 +0000, Herbert Prinz wrote: >The astronomical definition for equinox is "The instant at which the >apparent longitude of the Sun is 0deg (or 180deg)". This may or may not be >the moment at which the declination of the Sun is 0 deg. The reason being >that the latitude of the sun need not be 0 (this year it will be 0.06" at >time of equinox) and that the Earth is wobbling around a little. I always thought declination was the "latitude" of a body, ie, the angle with respect to the equator of a line drawn to the center of the body from the center of the earth. I've obviously missed something. Could Herbert or someone else educate me on the difference between celestial latitude and declination (and how the earth's wobble makes for a difference?). Thanks Lu Abel
